Moiseeva Irina
the leader of expeditional work, study of local lore teacher
State regional educational institution of secondary professional education
Eniseysk pedagogical college
You can feel the real affection, the real love only towards a thing you know, understand and it is close to you and that’s why it is valuable.
The love to the small native land, which is known to many of people on the emotional level, should become efficient and reformative. It is necessary to know your roots, your sources for that. And then the respect, the pride and the pain will appear, just as the desire to live on this land.
In our opinion historical – legal expeditions are one of the most effective forms of transformation of local lore study into the “study of love of local lore” .
You should have accurate and clear aims on realizations of which your project will be directed. It would be better to plan the given form of activity – expeditional form – as a project, by virtue of realization specificity. You make definite aims and it means you shouldn’t forget about such thing that besides concrete results, which are achieved during the work of certain expedition, there are deferred results. It is impossible to measure the level of patriotism of your pupils the next day after your coming back from expedition. So it is the same deferred result and you can follow it in the long run.
Each our expedition –both the first and the second - had the following purposes:
- forming of historical and national selfconsciousness of future history
teachers – inhabitants of Eniseysk, Eniseysky region, who know and appreciate
cultural and historical heritage, and who love their region and are ready to
live and to work in it;
- passing of educational practise by students of historical professions on the
subject of “The fixation of oral history connected with political repressions of
20th -50th ”;
- spreading of students historical space on the subject of “Totalitarian State”;
- spreading of informational space of Eniseysky regional museum and of Eniseysk
archives on the subject of “Political exile of Eniseysky region”;
- to render all types of assistance (legal, ethical, practical) to the persons
who are victims of political repressions.
Starting from certain purposes we set following tasks:
- establishment of concrete circle of persons who are repressed and living in
certain settlement;
- registration of facts about the circumstances of being in exile, about life
conditions etc.
- archives compiling of (audio-, photo-, video-) recordings of oral history;
- monitoring of social conditions of life in the life of rehabilitated persons;
- realization of group- and individual consultation on the occasion of special
law (The rehabilitation law) achievement;
- cultural and educational activity.
So you are defined and you know WHAT do you want. Therefore we can start to discuss the second part of our question – HOW. Successfulness of expedition clarify itself with many factors. Let’s deal with more important and significant factors.
The choice of disposition place.
First of all it will be defined by presence of people in certain settlement who can be your potential respondents (it means they were repressed or deported). You can get the information about their dwelling in the department of social protection of inhabitants. But take it into consideration that so far there are people who aren’t rehabilitated because of some reasons.
It is very important that your desires will be proportionate with your opportunities, first of all in financial aspect. When you choose the certain point you shouldn’t be guided by its distance as the index of the unexploration of the investigation point (although you dream about it) and the possibility of search of an exclusive. You are possessed, but you should be sober and don’t be upset if you have to work not far from your home. Independently of the distance your pupils will disclose their own “America” in any case, and they will teach the history alive firsthand. And believe that sometimes you can find exclusive in the place you don’t design it. Communication resources (stable communication) and the presence of first-aid post are also very important when you choose the place.
The expedition itself (the work on the place) is just a part of a project and you can pick out three stages in it:
1. entering the subject
2. expeditional
3. presentation of results
On the first stage, if we can say so, extensive broadening of educational space on the subject “Political repressions” takes place. Students should (without assistance) become familiar with the electronic version of teacher-book “The history of political repressions and the resistance to unliberty in USSR” in detail (publishers “Mosgosarchive”, 2002), which contains the complex analysis of forms, methods and reasons of repressive policy of soviet regime. Also it reveals forms and scales of opposition and resistance to this policy for the part of different social groups, public formations and individuals. The perception level of the material and its discussion will be the topic of conversation of one of the seminar at the second stage of the project.
In the course of systematic museum and archive practise (32 hours), which is necessary for every first-year student of historical profession, our students can prepare to the work with archive and museum documents, which are worked out in detail the public, political and economic life of the settlement we are going to. Further work with the filings of the newspaper “Eniseyskaya pravda”, with the minutes of the rural council sessions and comradely trials is rather productive. However, any archive document of that time-period (20th -50th) can be an additional source of getting the information.
Qualitative fixation of oral history is impossible without learning principles of conducting an interview. We worked out the methodical aids on the materials of the book of famous British hisorian Thompson Paul “The voice of the past. Oral history” and it introduces us with different forms of the interview. The perception level of conducting an interview will be corrected during another seminar.
It is very important to plan all seminars on the first stage – the same as practical work of the second stage and actions of different natures (disputes, excursion, meetings with interesting people of certain settlement, brain-rings, name-days, sanitary actions, etc)
Stage 2. Expeditional stage.
When you are settled, in the first day it is necessary to discuss and to make
out a number of documents about the regulation of expedition’s life, work and
interelationships. Bluntly speaking you should discuss together the day routine,
duty requirements, the content and realization of schedule meetings. Also you
should introduce students with approximate plan of different actions and discuss
and correct it. Informational stand is another necessary point in your group.
Here you should place lists of respondents, questions for seminars, duty
schedule, menu... And so-called everyday reflexion.
It will be mentioned separately about schedule meetings: without them there is no vital activity of expedition.
What is the schedule meeting?
- it is a meeting of all group (sometimes students can meet each other only in
canteen because every man has his own route);
- it is a planning (every man should learn properly what he should do, how and
why, where he can plan his free time etc.);
- It is everyday reflexion (every man or group should give a report about their
work, their problems, they should share their impressions, they should steam and
relax emotionally).
It is impossible not to hold a schedule meeting. You don’t have to get students toghether – they are waiting this moment as the final chord of the day.
It is obligatory in the first day for your pupils to write a composition “My expectations”. There they should motivate their choice (work in expedition) and tell what they are waiting for or what they hope. It is very important for the whole group because in the last expedition day it will be easier for them to reflex, to cast, to appreciate the effectivness of expedition, to understand the reasons of ups and downs, to appreciate their own role and significance, to see all advantaged and disadvantages –in a word, to make the next expedition life easier.
Don’t be lazy to organize in the first days a village excursion or the meeting
in school museum, in club or in library. It is important for students to recieve
the first introductions about the village, its history, traditions, its past and
present firsthad from local inhabitants.
It is necessary to meet with local administration, social officials and compare
lists of rehabilitated.
I catch myself at a thought that I say the phrase “in the first days” again. Yes, it is really a lot of work in the first days, and it will define the success of your expedition. It is hard, you are tired, aren’t you? The day is so long but you have no time to everything you want? It is normal condition and normal feelings. You see you starting a mechanism. And one more. . . Students feel themselves the same way as yours. Don’t forget about it!
Directly before the work with your respondents it is necessary to make some seminars. It will be no difficulties with the working out questions for the seminar “The repressive policy of Soviet State”. You should dwell on the seminar “The principles of conducting the interview”, because its work is direct not only to the discussion of methodical interview base but to the solvation of concrete task - the formulating of questions for future respondents.